If there is anyone with flim making experience/knowledge, please enlighten me...

[GummyBearz]

...on the game of thrones season 7 postponement. The official reason given is they need to shoot later in the year to capture winter scenes. So far they have had many winter scenes which have been in Iceland and they have always had plenty of snow. Do they honestly need it to snow in Ireland, wait for the day that happens, and hope to get in all the right takes? It seems kind of stupid... I'm pretty sure they manufacture snow rather than depend on weather reports for their snow.

It sounds like a BS excuse to me, but I have no knowledge of the industry so anyone involved in film making please enlighten me

[hughee99]

1. I suppose it depends on the scale of the scene.

If you have a close up scene outside, you can manufacture show. If you're on the scale of one of the battles with the big wide shots, you probably need the real thing for it to look right.

While this may be an added bonus to pushing back the schedule, I'd be surprised if this was the only reason for the postponement.

[GummyBearz]

4. Thanks, but I still have other problems with natural snow

What if the forecast snow turns out to be a gigantic blizzard and they can't shoot anything? What if the forecast changes? Why on earth risk your schedule on a weatherman? It still seems like an excuse (and a bad one at that) to let George RR Martin have more time to publish his next book before the next season airs.

[Warpy]

6. Yes, you can use foam and Ivory Flakes on a sound stage

but for wide shots, you at least need the leaves off the trees, not to mention the hay fields down to stubble.

It's a question of scale, which is why the wide shots in The Lord of the Rings had to be shot in mountains of New Zealand.

[yallerdawg]

2. They clearly stated...

"Winter is here."

Global warming has shortened that reality.

CGI and effects is much more costly than just turning on the camera in the winter.

"Winter" is the point of the entire series!

[GummyBearz]

5. Yes yes yes

But that doesn't really get to the heart of my question. Is CGI snow more expensive than sitting around waiting for natural snow? What if the natural snow is a black-out blizzard and you can't even shoot? There are a lot of unknowns in the world, and the weather is high up on the list of them. To me this just sounds like an excuse to let GRRM have more time to finish his next book before the next season airs.

[yallerdawg]

8. No no no.

The show and the books have parted ways.

Ask any author: "What have they done to your book?" The author looks back on the bookshelf and says: "Looks like they haven't done anything to it."

Unlike books, movies have a shelf life. Harry Potter movies, Dumbledore was two actors. Hunger Games, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

GRRM has had a lifetime to do his books.

HBO doesn't.

[GummyBearz]

10. Well, they haven't entirely

A few story lines have been changed. Brienne's being a prime example. And some characters have been combined in the show, but the main plot lines are quite close to the books. Show Dany is a bit ahead of the books and there are other examples, but still very close. I hope they get the perfect snow fall at the perfect time of day and manage to shoot all the scenes they need in the time the snow falls. But that just sounds unlikely

[yallerdawg]

13. Wut?

The show has moved way past the books - all kinds of spoilers already!

Most 'readers' are hoping for some kind of an alternative reality, and the detail and extensive storylines of 'other' characters, but the show has moved on, guided by GRRM.

[GummyBearz]

14. Yes it has

I should have stated that some plot lines in the show are ahead of the books, but not all are. There are a lot of plot lines here. Between the book and the show, the Greyjoy plot line/timing is really close, Bran's plot/timing is really close, and they could very well be YUUUGGEE

[Exilednight]

9. CGi is very expensive. To hazard a guess, I would rationalize

That they will use snow machines, but it still has to be above a certain temperature to get the snow to stick.

It doesn't necessarily have to be 32F for artificial man made snow, they just need to get the ground cold enough so it doesn't melt on impact.

A few minute scene can cost close to half a million for simple CGI, and they probably want to save that budget for dragons and such.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. I think the winter they await is in Coatia more than Northern Ireland....

It would certainly be helpful to have winter to shoot in. Also, HBO would like to see more seasons, the writers have said seven only and by dragging out the production dates and airing dates HBO gets to extend the life of the show on HBO without additional seasons. I expect them to chop the season in half as well, ala Breaking Bad in their last year. The production entities struggle with this new concept that some series have a natural end no matter how wildly popular they are.

For fun reading about movies in the snow, read up on Fargo's struggle to find enough snow in Minnesota during the winter......

[OnDoutside]

7. It's a sweltering 72F in Ireland now ...

[Iggo]

11. Won't someone think of the Gingers?

[yallerdawg]

12. Story and 'Tubman's.'

"We don't have an air date yet," the showrunners said July 6. "We're starting a bit later because at the end of this season, 'winter is here' — and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes anymore. So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim, gray weather, even in the sunnier places that we shoot."

While the series is approaching its endgame, stars Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) each recently scored pay bumps. They'll each earn upward of $500,000 per episode for season seven, which has already been announced, and in the likely eighth season. The cast raises result from an option that was part of their last deal with HBO, signed in October 2014, which saw the five stars become among the highest-paid actors on cable TV. The premium network had the option on season seven, and that has now been exercised and packaged with season eight. While the five stars are locked in, it does not guarantee that their characters will survive through what is expected to be the end of the series.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-season-7-episode-910200

[bettyellen]

15. More than just snow they need cool cloudy days too. Probably looking for snow in Europe or Iceland..

As Ireland gets precious little even in cold years.